NCJ Number
54317
Date Published
1978
Length
131 pages
Annotation
THIS INTERIM REPORT DOCUMENTS THE CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT, STRUCTURE, AND FUNCTION OF BFIRES, A COMPUTER PROGRAM DESIGNED TO SIMULATE HUMAN MOVEMENT BEHAVIOR IN BUILDING FIRES.
Abstract
THE BASIC MODEL UNDERLYING BFIRES IS DERIVED FROM A NONSTATIONARY DISCRETE TIME MARKOV PROCESS MODEL. THIS MODEL POSTULATES THAT HUMAN OCCUPANTS CONSTRUCT THEIR EMERGENCY RESPONSES AND BEHAVIORAL DECISIONS ON THE BASIS OF SOCIALLY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY BASED INFORMATION, ALL OF WHICH CONTINUALLY CHANGE OVER TIME. AS THE INFORMATION FIELD CHANGES, SO DOES THE BASIS FOR INDIVIDUAL EMERGENCY DECISONMAKING. BFIRES IS WRITTEN IN FORTRAN-V AND IS OPERATING CURRENTLY AT THE CENTER FOR BUILDING TECHNOLOGY, NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS (WASHINGTON, D.C.). THE BASIC COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAM INCLUDE MECHANISMS FOR INITIATING SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS, ALGORITHMS FOR SIMULATING HUMAN PERCEPTUAL AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES, AND ROUTINES FOR OVERALL SYSTEM OPERATIONS AND DATA ACCOUNTING. DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY ARE DISCUSSED. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH INVOLVE REVIEWS OF LITERATURE AND DATA BASES IDENTIFIED DURING THE SIMULATION DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE, AND EMPIRICAL RESEARCH EFFORTS DESIGNED TO ADDRESS CERTAIN SIMULATION-DERIVED QUESTIONS ABOUT HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN FIRES. THE APPENDIXES CONTAIN THE MARKOVIAN ANALYSIS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN FIRES, A DESCRIPTION OF THE BEHAVIORAL MODEL UNDERLYING BFIRES, A FORTRAN-V LISTING OF THE BFIRES PROGRAM, AND INSTRUCTIONS ON PREPARING A BFIRES INPUT FILE. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED--DAG)